Those looking for single-bedroom apartments in SF will — for the first time since the pandemic — likely pay more than if they had rented in NYC.
The pandemic hobbled San Francisco’s rental market … ostensibly for the better. Rents fell on average over 20% across the city, giving way to “pandemic pricing” and too-good-to-be-true move-in incentives pushed by luxury buildings and property management companies. (Those who secured leases in apartments that aren’t covered by rent control measures quickly felt that sting when their leases came up for renewal in 2022 and 2023.)
That hobbling brought San Francisco down, occupying the top four or five most expensive U.S. cities to rent; SF had been on top of those lists since 2015. New York City quickly reclaimed its number-one spot as viral and demoralizing rent prices flooded traditional and social media platforms.
Well, San Francisco’s “doom loop” narrative is losing more accuracy by the day — as evident by a recent study that found SF now more expensive to rent than NYC, especially among those seeking one-bedroom apartments.
A recent study by Storage Sense found the median rent for a one-bedroom San Francisco apartment is $2,761. Comparably, the same layout in New York City was $2,219 — over $500 less than the former metro.
San Francisco was only second to Washington D.C. in cost per rented 100-square-feet; SF came in at $225, while D.C. marginally bested it by $229; NYC’s cost per rented 100-square-feet was found to be about $190.
The study also revealed that SF’s housing supply remains hella tight, with just over 4,000 rental homes — including condos, apartments, and, of course, single-family houses — available, reflecting the city’s high demand and limited inventory. Seems as good as any reason to greenlight Nob Hill’s first high-density housing construction proposed in over three decades.
Photo: Courtesy of RentSFNow
